
Winners and Losers of the Week: Click Here
There is a good chance Gov. Jon Corzine will pick his running mate before July 16, if for no other reason than to get the Democratic Lt. Governor ... >
It's called making perfection the enemy of the good and it's the first lesson of legislating.
Every legislative action involves ... >
In a rebuke to Judge Sotomayor, who found neither empathy nor justice for victims of obvious racial discrimination, the SCOTUS struck another blow ... >
The re-election campaign of Governor Jon Corzine was down-right giddy this week when it was announced that the state's tax amnesty program ... >
Who is minding the Asylum! >
The legendary sports journalist, Jimmy Cannon of the now defunct New York Journal-American said of Howard Cosell: “His real name is Howard Cohen, ... >
Based on the first Republican debate, which I had the opportunity to watch in the NJN studio and participate in a panel discussion afterwards, it ... >
Bailout of Madoff Not Making Everyone Happy
Special to AP Newswire
With 700 billion dollars being spent on the General Motors bailout, AIG, ... >
Word on the "internet street" has it that all the "King Street Men" supposedly are busy gathering cash for Union County ... >
Last week the New Jersey State Legislature passed a $29 billion budget for fiscal 2010 which begins on July 1, 2009. Governor Corzine's budget ... >
The real losers of the week are
NJ's taxpayers.
CWA Big Time Loser
The final budget deal hashed out is a complete and embarrassing loss for the once powerful CWA Union.
They lost on every issue and to add insult to injury they even lost a holiday! State Senator Sweeney rubbed their nose in it by getting Lincoln's birthday knocked off the holiday list.
Here are the final issues as written in the AP tonight:
-- Raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
-- Require someone to earn $7,500 per year to receive a taxpayer-funded pension.
-- Eliminate Lincoln's Birthday as a state worker holiday.
-- Allow the state to offer incentives to workers not to take taxpayer-paid health insurance.
"The taxpayers really won today, and I actually think we're being fair to everyone," said Sweeney, D-Gloucester.
Public worker unions had opposed the reforms, but the top officials from the state's largest teachers union participated in the closed-door meetings in which the agreement was hashed out.
Even the NJEA sold CWA down the river by sitting in on the final negotiations!
Why is this important? The myth of power has now been broken. Financial issues that were once thought to be " sacred cows" will now be reviewed and " rethought".
The CWA is a paper tiger. No one in Trenton is scared or intimidated anymore by them. This is a huge paradigm shift that will have ramifications for years.
Taking Lincoln's birthday is a very big symbolic " slap in the face" , a " now you know who is boss" type of action.
It might seem like a minor issue to someone on the outside but losing Lincolns birthday could not have happened a few years ago when this union had some " juice".
How do you spell loser? C -- W-- A
Big Loser - Lonegan
Steve Lonegan sold out his Conservative base last year by endorsing Kevin O'Toole, now O'Toole is touting the praises of Chris Christie for Governor.
Steve Lonegan has been running non-stop for Governor since 2005 and has been using Americans for Prosperity to give him the name recognition. Perhaps he as learned a lesson, "if you sleep with dogs you will get fleas."
"We will have peace when they love their children more than they hate us" ~ Golda Meir